New paradigms are emerging in neuroscience and developmental psychology, but which have yet to impact on the world of psychotherapy. Using Friston’s active inference model and attachment-influenced child development findings I shall point to the strengths and limitations of current psychotherapy theories, and make suggestions for practice, training and research.

Jeremy Holmes MD FRCPsych is visiting Professor at the University of Exeter, and author of numerous papers and books in the field of psychoanalytic psychotherapy and attachment, including John Bowlby and Attachment Theory (2nd edition, Routledge 2013), The Therapeutic Imagination (Routledge 2014)